During the process of completing this assignment, students were able to see other students’ postings and to leave comments. Dr. Recuber notes that although students did not choose to leave comments on the blog as much as he might have wished, active discussions occurred in class, centered around the work that had been done on the blog. Students also shared information about formatting their blog posts and embedding materials in their writing.

Students integrated many types of multimedia materials into their online memorials, including images, videos, and audio files. Dr. Recuber described a student project investigating the famous sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald that included the music written to commemorate the event. Dr. Recuber said that it was one thing to read about the disaster and experience the music related to the disaster, but it was quite another level to actually hear the music while reading the essay. It was also noted, that, given the subject matter, images included in the projects sometimes proved to be quite graphic.

Timothy Recuber reports that he had positive outcomes from the project, but that he learns more about these types of assignments each semester. The project allowed students, who may have struggled with other forms of writing during the semester, to find additional ways to express themselves. For many students however, the open-ended nature of the project was daunting and, for the instructor, a challenge to grade.

The use of WordPress for this assignment was as more of a ‘content management system’ than of a blog. Dr. Recuber expressed an interest in using WordPress in future semesters in more a more traditional blog format in which writings are displayed in a chronological sequence. Dr. Recuber also indicated that he might encourage the use of the commenting feature of the platform.

If you are interested in using WordPress for your course, you can always contact the ETC (Educational Technologies Center) to get you started. To view the video of the session, use the media player below.

Janet demonstrated the SMART Podium connected to a MacBook Air.  Running the SMART Technologies Notebook software on her laptop,she mirrored her laptop screen on the SMART Podium and annotated directly on the screen using the Podium’s tethered pen. The Notebook software provides choices of pen color, line style, and even creates slideshows that can be shared with a class after the lecture. Images and PowerPoints can be imported into the Notebook software, annotated and saved, even uploaded to Blackboard. ETC has a SMART Podium that can be borrowed for classroom teaching. You can find more information on the SMART Podium here: http://www.princeton.edu/etc/services/.

Angel demonstrated how the iPad can be used as a whiteboard in a classroom. To project the iPad screen, a special dongle is needed to connect to the room projector; on non-enterprise networks, it is also possible to use a technology called AirPlay together with an inexpensive AppleTV unit to wirelessly transmit the iPad screen to a device with an HDMI connection. She then showed how the iPad can be used for teaching, demonstrating several slideshow ‘apps’, including Google Drive, Slideshark, CloudOn and Explain Everything.

The iPad can also be used as a tool to annotate PDFs and slideshows. Two popular ‘apps’,   GoodReader  and Papers (which connects to research databases), were demonstrated. All of these applications connect to services such as DropBox or protocols such as WebDav (Princeton’s WebSpace uses webdav) to save and share documents and presentations.

Finally Angel answered a question she often hears in her job at the NMC: “How do I display my course reserve videos that are in the Flash format?” Angel demonstrated a Flash browser app called Puffin. This browser allows iPads to play web-based Flash videos  (which the Safari browser native to the iPad cannot). The ETC also has a solution to stream and play video on the iPad by preparing the video through the campus-based Kaltura media system.

A summary of the apps discussed and demonstrated at this talk are located here: http://blogs.princeton.edu/etc/2012/12/06/using-your-tablet-in-the-classroom-an-app-summary/

The video of the talk:

The Google Nexus 7 (google.com)

In this session, John LeMasney joined the audience in a conversation about the Android operating system, and the Nexus 7 Tablet, Google’s first entry into the tablet market. The Nexus 7 was Google’s first competitive action to the ever-popular Apple iPad, and its quick success in the industry prompted Apple to cut the size of their iPad in the offering of the iPad mini. While other vendors like Samsung found some success with their Tab Android Tablet line, the Nexus was the first Google-designed device in this form factor. The device was manufactured by Asus.  Here are the ten things that LeMasney presented about the Nexus, and Android Tablets.

1. Android versus Chrome OS
   There is still some confusion in the market about when someone might choose an Android based device (like phones and tablets) and when they might opt instead for a Chromebook running Chrome OS (essentially a laptop running only a browser) which LeMasney and Howarth discussed in a previous Lunch & Learn. Google itself said that Android is for touch-based devices and Chrome OS is for keyboard-based devices, though that answer is complicated by Google’s recent release of the Chromebook Pixel which features a touch interface. It is also complicated by Android devices such as the Cotton Candy Stick based PC, a small device running Android meant to be used with a keyboard, mouse and monitor. Since many users of both Chromebooks and Android devices are happy and satisfied with the abilities of the devices, the confusion may not matter that much.
2. The Play Store
   One of the first things that you will do with an Android device is sign into it with a Google account, and that authentication will allow you to install applications with Google’s own app, media, and book store called Google Play. Play, like Amazon’s app store for Kindle devices and Apple’s Store for iOS devices, allows you to buy (or often download for free) and install movies, music, apps, books, and even buy new devices, such as the Nexus 7. You can even install Amazon’s App store along with the Play store on your Android device. The idea behind each of these ecosystems is to create a one-stop shop for all your media needs, and the tablets, phones, desktops and other devices can then allow users to get to and consume all of that media from anyplace on a network.
3. Navigation and Folders
   You can move, delete or collect installed apps into folders on your tablet screens. These actions become available after doing a long press on an app, meaning that your touch the app and hold your finger there for a moment until it ‘jumps’, at which point you can move it. Once you install an application from the Play store, you can do a long press on it in your installed application list on your tablet and drag it to the screen where you’d like it to live as a shortcut. You can also drag an app onto another app to create a collection or folder of those apps.
   

   Making a folder in Android (droid-life.com)

4. Keyboards and Voice to Text
   While the default screen-based keyboard is a perfectly nice way to search, write and update in your apps, you can choose to install alternative keyboards on Android to add different functionality. If you install the keyboard from Swype, for example, you can swipe your finger over the letters of a word, and the application will guess the word that you are typing from your gesture, which can be great for increasing the speed of your typing. Alternatively, Android has voice recognition that you can use to search, play your favorite artist, or dictate a written note. You can learn more about Voice actions in Android from this Google article.
5. Customized Interfaces
   Another interesting aspect of the Android experience is that you can completely replace the interface with apps like Nova Launcher, which allows you to change the icons, background, lock screen and other interfaces. You can also create a dashboard of widgets to see information like email, weather, social media updates, and calendar events at a glance of your screen without entering those applications. With an Android only application like Tasker, you can create sensor based triggers for actions, like to start playing music whenever you plug in headphones, turn down your volume when you connect to your work’s WiFi, or send an automated text to your spouse when you walk into the geolocation of your parking lot at work.
6. Google Services
   Google’s Nexus Tablet makes very strong use of Google services. With Drive, you can store and edit all of your documents, drawings, spreadsheets, and presentations. With Calendar, you can keep track of your agenda. With Gmail, you can stay informed of conversations with friends and colleagues. With Plus, you can follow and stay informed about the contacts and topics that you find most important. You can use Google Maps to navigate and find out what’s going on in your locality. Google’s tablet includes all of these dedicated apps and others to give you a lot of productivity options at the time of purchase.
7. Google Now
   Google Now is the default search engine interface in the latest version of Android. It adds value to your searches by predicting and presenting information that you need when and where you need it. For instance, if you do a search on an upcoming flight, it will track that flight and automatically present information related to it to you in Now. If you search on a location, it will show you a map of that site with a link to navigate to it. If you have an upcoming meeting, it will remind you about the meeting, and tell you when you have to leave to be there on time. You can turn on or off any of these notifications, called cards in Now.
8. Sharing data between apps
   You can easily share data like pictures between applications on Android. If you are in the Flipboard app and you see a picture that you’d like to post to Pinterest, you can do it easily just by installing both apps. From the image you’d like to share in Flipboard, touch the share button, choose Pinterest from the list of installed applications that understand pictures, and finish the share in the Pinterest app.
9. Notifications and Quick Settings Bar
   You not only get notified in Android when you get email, but you have the ability to expand that notification to preview the content of the email without ever leaving the notification dropdown. The latest version of Android also has a quick settings palette to quickly toggle wifi, sound, and other sensors. Here’s a basic overview of notifications from Google.
10. Specifications for the Nexus 7
    In closing, LeMasney shared the specifications of the Nexus 7 (https://play.google.com/store/devices/details?id=nexus_7_16gb)
    Screen:

    7″ 1280×800 HD display (216 ppi)
    Back-lit IPS display
    Scratch-resistant Corning® glass

    Camera:

    1.2MP front-facing camera

    Size:

    198.5 x 120 x 10.45mm

    Weight:

    340g

    Wireless:

    WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
    Bluetooth
    NFC (Android Beam)

    Memory:

    16 GB internal storage (actual formatted capacity will be less)
    1 GB RAM

    USB

    Micro USB

    Battery:

    4325 mAH (Up to 8 hours of active use)

    OS:

    Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean)

    CPU:

    NVIDIA® Tegra® 3 quad-core processor

    Sensors:

    Microphone
    NFC (Android Beam)
    Accelerometer
    GPS
    Magnetometer
    Gyroscope

Here is the presentation from the talk: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/101_pg1qI4OuGjN-jGMuZU3tIRgUyPjI2aXvsx1MRL9I/edit?usp=sharing

Here is the screencast from the talk:

Lunch & Learn

In the Lunch & Learn session on Wednesday, February 20th, 2013, Janet Temos, Director of the Educational Technologies Center at Princeton, and Angel Brady, Instructional Technologist in the Humanities Resource Center at Princeton, gave an introductory talk for new users of the iPad, Apple’s famously popular tablet.

Organizing

Temos started the talk by introducing the iPad’s interface, sometimes met with culture shock by long time users of desktop computers because of the touch based interface, which has different interactions than a mouse based interface. Using two fingers versus one and gesturing, or holding down your finger for an extra second have meaning on tablet interfaces, and no easy equivalent on a mouse based interface. Temos noted that collecting many applications can make navigating that large collection more difficult, but you can create folders on your iPad to organize those apps that go together, or to make sense of the way that you work. Janet has a folder just for presentation apps. From your home screen where your apps are listed, the clean interface may make you wonder how to do such a thing as adding a folder. If you hold your finger on an app for a few seconds (a long press gesture), the apps start to ‘shake’, at which point you can move or delete them. Shaking is a visual indicator on the iPad that you can make a change to the shaking items, such as deletion or moving. To create a folder, after a long press, drop one app on to another. To add an app to a folder, after a long press, drag it into the folder. While your apps collection may span several screens that you can swipe through, the dock (the area at the bottom of the iPad screen) remains constant. To store your most often used apps for quick opening, store them on the dock. When you are all done, hit the physical home button on the iPad to exit the ‘shaky’ editing mode.

Managing app processes and settings

Do a double press on the physical home button to see what apps are in memory. You can press each icon to remove the app from active memory, which relieves the processor from having to manage that app actively. You can customize the iPad dramatically via the Settings app. Add email accounts, join networks, and change your sound settings, among many other options. Temos suggests that you explore the settings and their effects to get deeply familiar with your iPad. You can also change the setting of each app here.

Typing

The iPad’s virtual on-screen keyboard works when a Bluetooth keyboard is not present. Long presses on this keyboard’s keys often give shortcuts to alternative characters and strings. A long press on O, for instance, gives many alternative versions of the O such as various accented versions.

App store

You can manage and add to the installed apps on your iPad via the App Store. You must login to your iTunes account to buy, update and track apps, even the free ones. If you have to rebuild your iPad, you can reinstall previously purchased apps. You can visit the purchased area of the App Store app to see what you have installed in the past.

Hardware add-ons

Temos suggested that while the iPad is a self-contained, fully working object, you can get many benefits from the various add-ons that you can buy for it.

Headphones make for a more private audio experience. A bluetooth keyboard can make your iPad into a small, highly portable laptop. A stylus can make drawing and writing on the iPad far easier than with your finger. Various dongles, ranging from $30–50 allow you to send your iPad screen to VGA, HDMI and other video interfaces, for display on a projector or a TV. You can also use an Apple TV, about $100, which allows you to show the iPad on-screen via a wireless display technology Apple calls Airplay. You can also use the Apple TV to buy and watch movies from Apple, or use your Netflix, Hulu, and other media services.

Security and cloud storage

Temos briefly mentioned that by default, you need only ‘swipe to unlock’ a running iPad, which is the default, but that you can set a password as an extra layer of defense so that if you lose your iPad or if it gets stolen, the finder or thief would need to guess or crack your password to make use of your data. Brady told the audience that you can add many cloud storage services to get access to those files. In particular, she described how you can add WebSpace via the WebDAV protocol, which both WebSpace and the iPad support. (http://helpdesk.princeton.edu/kb/display.plx?id=9924)

Apps

No talk about the iPad would be complete without sharing various useful apps for the audience to consider. Both Temos and Brady suggested apps that might make sense for faculty, staff and students at Princeton. Brady and Temos presented various levels of detail on the following applications.

The Orchestra (TouchPress)

This app allows you to explore the orchestra in innovative ways, including written explanations of instruments from musicians, a follow-along version of the  score, and simultaneous shots of players and conductor during the performance. The app focuses on works by Haydn, Beethoven, Berlioz, Debussy and others. http://www.touchpress.com/blog/2012/12/our-creative-director-waxes-lyrical-about-orchestra/

Lynda.com

If you want to watch courses on technology, business, and productivity, including a fantastic list of popular design applications like Photoshop, this app is a great place to get your fill. Because of Princeton’s site license for Lynda, Princeton faculty, staff, and students may use it for free. (http://lynda.princeton.edu)

Camera App

The iPad’s front and rear facing camera allow you to take pictures or video of yourself or what’s in front of you. You can add a grid to help you to compose your shots. Connect via USB, use email, or use Photo Stream to move the photos from the iPad to your computer or elsewhere. (http://www.apple.com/icloud/features/photo-stream.html)

Note taking apps

Angel Brady presented a set of apps specifically for taking notes in the field, including Evernote, Notability, and others. She detailed her findings in this post at http://blogs.princeton.edu/etc/2013/02/20/field-note-taking-with-the-ipad/

iPad

Field note taking can involve documenting observations or research with video, photographs, audio, and writing down observations on a type of device or on a good old pencil and paper. The iPad has all these features built into it and there are apps out there that can access these features and keep all your notes in one place. The advantage of the iPad is that it’s portable and fairly easy to use. We decided to take a look at apps that will help with field note taking.

Two things we were looking for in the apps were that the app will attach a geolocation to our notes and that the app easily adds images, audio, and video (media) into out notes without having to leave that app. We found that not all note taking apps attached a geolocation to our notes, and some did not give us all the note taking features we wanted, but these apps address most of the concerns of field note taking and have been used in academic circles for this specific purpose. One more thing you need to consider when using your iPad for taking field notes, you may want to invest in a cellular plan if you can not connect to wi-fi while doing your field research. It’s always best to shop around first and see what kind of deals you can get for a cellular data plan for your iPad.

Notability (no Geolocation for notes) $1.99: iTunes Link:

• Can type, hand write, erase, and highlight notes. Record audio and take photos inside the app and insert them right inside your notes.
• Can draw figures inside the app and insert them directly into your notes.
• Can take a clip from a website and directly insert it into your notes
• Can bookmark pages of notes
• Can send your notes to many different services like WebDav, Dropbox, Google Drive, and Email (and attach the audio files too). You can send the notes as a PDF file.
• Can create stickies inside the app to place inside your notes.
• Adds date of the time and day it was created but can modify the due date if you edit it after the date it was created.

Penultimate (No Geolocation for Notes but Evernote does)Free : iTunes Link:

• Auto Syncs with Evernote
• Simple interface to insert photos, either from your Camera Roll or take a picture right inside the app using the iPad camera.
• Can write notes with your finger or stylus. Erase handwriting easily with swiping a finger or stylus.
• Cutting and pasting sections of handwritten notes is easy
• Can search your handwritten notes inside Penultimate. (because just like Evernote, it recognizes your handwriting).
• Latest date on the notebook is the date of the last edit to notebook.
• Notebooks are locked when viewing inside Evernote, can’t edit the note info (like adding tags, location, etc.). Need to email from Penultimate to Evernote and can then add location and tags.

Evernote (Geolocation) Free: iTunes link:

• Can access from web or iPad app (and other devices through the mobile Evernote app)
• Adds geolocation to notes
• Can add tags to notes for a way of labeling your notes
• Can add audio to notes
• Can take picture with camera or add image from camera roll in iPad
• Free but limits you how much content uploading and syncing you can do in a month, can pay for more uploading quota
• Can add video to note (size limit for that). Can’t shoot video and add it to note right inside the app. (can drag and drop video in computer to the note).
• Can email the notes with images and audio.
• Can search notes (it will even recognize text in pictures and handwriting)
• No tool inside iPad app to write with styles or finger

GeoNoto (Geolocation for Notes) Free: iTunes Link:

• Add points on a map by dragging
• Finds your current location using GPS
• Add text notes
• Add image using camera (only one image per point)
• Dates the notes but under the built in app event calendar
• Can’t add audio
• Only adds notes to where you’re currently located.
• No feature where you can export your notes out of the app

FieldNotes LT (Geolocation for Notes) Free (Paid Version $8.99): iTunes Link:

• Add images based off of your location using GPS
• Can add audio and video but need to purchase the Pro app ($8.99)
• Dates the notes
• Can send the file as a FieldNote native file (which the recipients will have to purchase the import functionality to open the doc), Google Earth KMZ, Text and Zip File and Email.
• To save files as a PDF, out output to iTunes or Dropbox, you need the pro version to do that.
• No handwriting (with finger or stylus) feature

As will all apps, you should always try them out to see if they work into your workflow, address your needs, and check the reviews to see what other users’ experiences have been with the apps. Happy field note taking!

William Howarth

On February 13th, 2013, William Howarth, Professor Emeritus at Princeton University was joined by John LeMasney and Janet Temos of Princeton’s Educational Technologies Center (ETC) to talk about the use of Google’s Chrome browser and the Chromebook in writing and research. Chrome is a web browser created by Google and allows you to visit and interact with web sites and services on the Internet. The Chromebook is a laptop from Google (collaborating with manufacturers) that runs only Chrome and nothing else.

Howarth began by showing the way that he uses Chrome as a browser on Mac OS. He discussed how he uses Chrome’s New Tab Page to store shortcuts to key applications that he uses every day. Previously, he has used an iPad, a Kindle Fire, and is now focusing on using Chrome as his main place of doing work digitally.  He said that part of the reason that he has settled on Chrome is that he feels like Google is the contemporary technology thought leader, set to dominate in business, mobile, and shopping. “Google runs the Web”, says Howarth, citing that in January 2013, they were the most used search engine, far ahead of others, and that in December of 2012, they had the leading browser, 47% of users, far ahead of Firefox or Internet Explorer. He suggested that their leadership and success is due to their emphasis on both speed and universal, cross-platform access.

Chrome

As a browser, Chrome is fast (http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57547157–93/google-chrome-has-gotten-26-percent-faster-this-year/), and it runs on all major platforms, including Windows, Mac OS, iOS, Android, and Linux (http://support.google.com/chrome/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=95411). It works on desktops, laptops, tablets, and phones. But it is more than a browser, according to Howarth, because it strongly supports and integrates web services and can function as an operating system, especially in the case of the Chromebook, where the browser has settings for the display, sound, and hardware (http://support.google.com/chromeos/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1047362). When Chrome is an operating system, it is referred to as ChromeOS, to signify the extra abilities of hardware management, etc. You do not need to have a Chromebook to use ChromeOS, because you can boot ChromeOS from a USB key using the Vanilla Bootable USB Key Chrome OS project (http://chromeos.hexxeh.net/) managed by a Googler named Liam McLoughlin.

Chrome is self-upgrading: just restart it, about an eight-second reboot on the Chromebook, to upgrade to the latest version. Customize Chrome via themes (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/category/themes?hl=en), extensions (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/category/extensions?hl=en), and apps (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/category/popular?hl=en). Chrome comes with basic cloud storage of 5 Gigabytes via Google Drive (http://support.google.com/drive/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2736257), though you may use other cloud storage as well. Extensions add functionality to the browser itself, such as the ability to select text, and upon copy, automatically add surrounding quotes, URLs and other citation material to the buffered text (Copy URL Plus). When you sign into Chrome with a Google account, you track all the changes you make to the settings, history, extensions, and web apps, which are the synchronized and made available to all of your other Chrome installs. In Chrome, if you install a web app on one running instance, the web app becomes available to your other instances of Chrome.

Researchers and writers can use Chrome for notes, files, and storage. Some notable apps in this regard are Evernote, Dropbox, Box.net, and Google Drive, all available for install at the Chrome Web Store. Google Drive‘s docs features allow you to share, edit, distribute, and collaborate on files with others in real-time for free. If you decide to adopt Google’s cloud based lifestyle provided by Chrome, Howarth suggested getting familiar with Google’s Drive, in which you can create documents, spreadsheets, drawings, forms, and presentations. It has an integrated PDF viewer and the ability to create PDFs, Word documents, and other Office documents. It also has a print preview and print features. You can upload, share and store any kind of file you wish in Drive (http://support.google.com/drive/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2424368).

Chromebooks

The Chromebook is a simple idea, executed simply: A laptop form factor that does only one thing: run ChromeOS. Howarth explained that the Chromebook solves some mobile computing issues for him. He can’t type easily on an iPhone or iPad screen keyboard, and prefers a physical keyboard. The iPad bluetooth keyboards work for many, but not for him. “This machine is low-cost, lightweight, easily portable, and is more durable than a netbook” says Howarth.

The recent Samsung model is 2.4 pounds, has an 11 inch screen, costs $199 or $249 depending on configuration. The Mac Air, by comparison, is about $1,000. In 2013, there are four known makers of Chromebooks: Samsung, Acer, Lenovo, and HP, though the most commonly sold devices are from Samsung and Acer (https://play.google.com/store/devices). Howarth suggests that a bluetooth mouse may be helpful, but that the screen and keyboard are very good, while the trackpad is usable. You can store and move files to and from a USB key to extend the storage of the Chromebook.

He notes that there are some differences in the user interface for Chrome on other operating systems and Chrome on the Chromebook. But essentially, the experience is the same. If you work online most of the time, as Howarth does, he suggests that you look at Chrome as a solution. “No matter what machine I’m using, I’m in the Chrome browser” he says.

Pros and Cons of Chrome:

Cons:

Some fear a Google technology monopoly, privacy issues, and invasive advertising. (http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505124_162-57569867/google-privacy-issues-in-forefront-again/)
There is some question of the future of Google’s two operating systems, Chrome and Android, and if and how they will coexist. (http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/mobile/05/17/google.chrome.android/index.html)
Cloud: is it a fad, or is it here to stay? With cloud based storage, different problems may emerge, such as synchronization failures. (http://support.google.com/drive/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2565956)
A Chrome user who does not use a traditional operating system is more or less dependent on online access, despite progress in offline use of Chrome applications, such as those in this app collection (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/category/collection/offline_enabled?utm_source=chrome-ntp-icon).

Pros:

Lower costs than traditional laptops
Google constantly grows, innovates, and integrates as part of their brand (http://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/quarterly/innovation/8-pillars-of-innovation.html)

Future:
Chromebooks will come in bigger, faster versions (HP has a 14″ Chromebook coming, Google HD display in the works).
Howarth believes that Chrome will have its biggest impact in education, from primary and secondary right up to Universities.

For the recorded portion of Professor Howarth’s talk, please see the video below.

Lunch & Learn logo

Jane Holmquist, a Princeton Librarian specializing in Astrophysics at the Peter B. Lewis Science Library, talked to the Lunch & Learn audience for the premiere of the Spring 2013 season of Lunch & Learn. She wanted to discuss the issues surrounding the purchase, selection and distribution of books for Princeton Libraries, patron wants, and the future of books in academic libraries. She focused mostly on the issue of choosing electronic books (e-books) or print books (p-books) and the pros and cons of each depending on the particular academic patron group.

Holmquist started with the iClicker immediate response feedback system to ask several questions to find the audience’s demographics, experience, and opinions before moving into her discussion and demonstration. She asked questions about occupation, gender, generation, device ownership, e-book usage, downloading practices, library visitation, book format preference, and a final prediction question about when libraries might only buy e-books.

She also made a point of giving both a digital feedback tool in the clickers and note cards at each seat to write questions, reflecting her unbiased support of both digital and analog methods.

She spoke about the ideology behind the Peter B. Lewis Science Library, where most spaces have no print books, wireless network activity is omnipresent, and no computers exist in study spaces, and students are encouraged to bring their own devices.

Holmquist then described some of the various situations and patron concerns created by e-book vendors and their distribution methods. For instance, some patrons want a print version of a book, but only the electronic version is available. (O’Reilly/Safari books) For example, some patrons want to save an e-book to their iPad for offline consumption, but that option is not always available. (Safari books requires a personal account for this.) Sometimes an e-book is available, but only 60 pages can be downloaded at a time. (ebrary, adobe digital editions) In some cases, only 1 page may be printed at a time. In other cases, the library has an e-book of a journal but the patron can download only individual articles (Cambridge, CJO) or individual chapters (SpringerLink).

She said that an ideal situation for course reserves is to have a combination of both print book and e-book versions. However, this is potentially very expensive as a solution. Also, eBooks are distributed as either MUPO (multi-user) or SUPO (single-user), and of course, MUPO is always preferred, but not always available or affordable.

In a live demonstration given on the iPad, the following resources were demonstrated.

Safari Books online. (link to Safari’s Android Development collection) “Safari Books Online is the premier on-demand digital library providing over 23102 technology, digital media, and business books and videos online to academic and library users.” (Safari Books Online)

ebrary. (link to collections) Contains an extensive collection of ebooks on the following topics: “Agriculture, Auxiliary Sciences of History, Bibliography, Library Science, Information Resources (General), Education, Fine Arts, General Works, Geography, Anthropology, Recreation, History (General) and History of Europe, History: America, Language and Literature, Law, Medicine, Military Science, Music and Books on Music, Naval Science, Philosophy, Psychology, Religion, Political Science, Science, Social Sciences, Technology” (ebrary)

SpringerLink (link to physics and astronomy collection) This service has millions of items in the following topic areas: Biomedical and Life Sciences (1,200,267), Medicine (1,194,910), Chemistry and Materials Science (825,929), Physics and Astronomy (543,268), Computer Science (474,917), Mathematics and Statistics (365,477), Earth and Environmental Science (334,561), Engineering (322,607) (Springer)

In order to see the presentation that Holmquist gave before her iPad demo, please watch the following video.

Lunch & Learn logo

Wednesday December 5
12:00 noon
Frist Multipurpose Room B
Tablets in the Classroom
Angel Brady, Ben Johnston, Janet Temos

Congratulations! You recently purchased a tablet and you are enjoying all its capabilities and productive apps. Now, you are wondering how you can use this device inside your classroom. This Lunch and Learn will discuss apps you can use for lecturing and presenting with your tablet device.

If you are interested in getting updates, video or other information about this session, please register here.*

*If you have trouble with the link, copy the following URL into your web browser: https://wass.princeton.edu/pages/viewcalendar.page.php?makeapp=1&cal_id=1756&block_id=83168

About the speakers: Angel Brady is an Educational Technologist at the Humanities Resource Center at Princeton University. Prior to coming to Princeton, she was an Instructional Technologist and Training Specialist at Rider University. She earned her Master’s of Science in Biomedical Visualization from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Ben Johnston is Senior Instructional Technologist in the Educational Technologies Center and Manager of the Humanities Resource Center at Princeton University.  He holds a Master’s degree in Education from Teachers College, Columbia University and has worked at Princeton since 2006.

Janet Temos is the Director of the Educational Technologies Center at Princeton. She is a member of the Princeton class of 1982, and received her PhD at Princeton in 2001. The ETC helps faculty use technology in teaching and research, and includes Blackboard, the New Media Center, the Humanities Resource Center. We also offer consulting, training and outreach in educational technologies.

Materials from this session follow:

The “Doceri” presentation from this session:
DoceriSupplement_LnL12_5_12

The “tablets” presentation from this session:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/pub?id=1Fr5tzfe00nA9gBWH0IzH0OAyv4oegCI9mYsvCg1AsmQ&start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000#slide=id.p

Audio from this session:

The first part of the presentation in screencast:

Lunch & Learn logo

Jill Moraca of Web Development Services (WDS) at Princeton University talked to the Lunch & Learn crowd about the various options offered to the Princeton community for creating websites. She explained that the conversation usually starts with the idea that the options available to you depend on who you are (e.g. individual, group, or project), what your specific needs are (e.g. how much support you need and how development-savvy you are), and how much you have in your spending budget (e.g. no budget, some money set aside, or a dedicated budget for the effort) for the site’s creation, development, and maintenance.

Jill Moraca

Moraca begins by assessing a customer’s specific needs and their audience’s needs by asking questions such as:

• How much time can you devote to your website?
• What content do you have or need to have for the site?
• Do you have the technical skills to update and patch the website?
• What are your goals and outcomes for the site?
• Who will read the site?
• What are they looking for?
• What do they need to do?

When developing official sites that represent the University and its various departments, Moraca always makes people aware that there are specific IT security and usage policies, requirements and recommendations (http://www.princeton.edu/itpolicy) such as those that prevent the selling of items, biased or political representation, and so on. The Office of Communications has its own set of required elements, such as site owner contact information, and highly suggested features, such as  the prominent presence of your site’s title on every page (http://www.princeton.edu/communications/services/web/launch/requirements/).

Moraca noted that there are now 8 options for publishing at Princeton, shown here in this handy chart from her slide deck:

Moraca described the options in some detail, organizing the options according to those available for individuals, individuals & groups, and groups only.

Individual options:

Google sites for students integrates with Google Apps, calendaring, blogs, and is templated, quick, easy to use, and has a point-and-click interface. OIT provides some light support, and the service is free to students. There is no fee-based customization for this service. http://www.princeton.edu/studentapps/google-apps/

Open Scholar is available for faculty, researchers and grad students who want to have a professional online presence with CV options. It is templated, quick to edit, easy to use, offers a point and click interface, and offers biography, publication and bibliography information, calendaring, classes, and more. It is supported, managed, patched, and secured by OIT. It is not very customizable, and there is a 2 GB quota. http://www.princeton.edu/etc/services/openscholar/

For individuals and groups:

SharePoint is available for faculty, staff and groups. It is templated, and best used for sharing information and documents. At Princeton, it is typically used as an intranet for internal, protected sharing, and not as a world-facing site. NetID is required for creation, but guest access is available. It is well supported, and users can get training. It is free, and there is no customization available. http://helpdesk.princeton.edu/kb/display.plx?ID=5286

cPanel is available to departments, programs, centers, labs, and individuals. It primarily provides a LAMP-based (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) environment for building applications, but also offers Scriptaculous, which allows for quick, one-click  installs of popular packages such as WordPress for low-bandwidth access by the world. Support is limited, and the user builds and secures the site themselves. It is free and has a 2 GB quota. More information is available at http://helpdesk.princeton.edu/kb/display.plx?ID=9807

WordPress is available to departments, groups recognized by the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students (ODUS), and faculty. WordPress is a blog-based web content management system. OIT offers vetted templates and plugins and limited support is available. Patching and updates are done by OIT, and the ETC offers specific support for faculty use in courses. It is free and comes with a 250 MB quota. It is available at http://blogs.princeton.edu

Only for groups:

Roxen is available to departments, programs, centers, and labs, but not individuals. Open scholar is a good alternative for those individuals looking for personal publishing. Roxen is a Content Management System (CMS), meaning that for users, no knowledge of code is necessary to create or edit a site. Templates and customizability, as well as many functionality modules  (e.g. directory listings, news items, etc.) are available. It is highly monitored, and training is available. OIT offers customization for Roxen in a few levels of service: free, (a standard template), low-cost, (some tweaks to CSS), and fully customized, (a group builds the site from scratch with full support and help from OIT). Documentation, training, and a variety of themes are available. It’s hosted, patched, and updated by OIT http://www.princeton.edu/roxen

Finally, Drupal is similar to Roxen, but far more customizable. It is also very well supported by OIT, with 24/7 monitoring, per-site training, with OIT managing all patches and upgrades. If you decide you want customization, there is a $50/hour rate for help. A recent pilot of Drupal has ended successfully, and OIT is launching production-ready sites. http://www.princeton.edu/wds

For more information or to get started with your website at Princeton, please contact Jill Moraca at *protected email*, or visit http://www.princeton.edu/wds

Below is the presentation and video from Moraca’s session.

20121128_moraca Powerpoint file

In the recent past, video and audio at Princeton were typically stored in lots of different places on campus, like Roxen, personal servers or work machines. Serving video from file servers and other places that are not built for video distribution leads to slow performance, low availability, and very often, a loss of the content if the storage is not backed up.

With Kaltura, there are many benefits in a centralized method of management. The large amount of data storage allows for  high quality video, converted into lots of transcoded (one video format converted into other formats) formats of the original video, called flavors in Kaltura parlance. Built-in file management allows people to organize, tag, and find their content. Adding metadata to video and audio content makes it more reasonable to find, manage and organize. The more information (e.g. author, copyright information, title, and description) attached to the video file, the better. Kaltura asks you to add metadata at the time of upload, and allows you to edit the data as you wish later.

The issue of transcoding is an issue when you need to convert an entire library or set of videos, because it is processor intensive and time-consuming — Kaltura automatically creates multiple formats of each item when you upload it, so that if your particular device does not support Flash based video, for instance, Kaltura will offer an alternative that is more likely to work.

Hopkins explained many reasons that Princeton chose Kaltura. Centralized storage and backup is a key reason. Personal, external hard drives are inexpensive, but flawed, and often fail. Moreover, they are not often backed up. Centralized video storage provides a system wide backup, available from anywhere. Companies such as HBO, Best Buy, the NBA and many academic institutions, including some Ivy Plus (http://corp.kaltura.com/content/customers) use Kaltura. The code is open source, meaning that anyone who knows how to program in standard languages can make use of the code to meet their own needs (http://www.kaltura.org/) and share the solutions with others. Kaltura Exchange (http://exchange.kaltura.com/) provides an active developer community and marketplace where plugins are discussed, developed, and used to solve needs of multiple users.

The key features of Kaltura include the ability to record a presentation on your webcam and upload it, organize files, add metadata to video and audio, create playlists and customized players, publish to many file formats, and give access, privacy & copyright controls. The access controls are incredibly important. The TEACH act asks publishers to remove copyrighted content for academic courses for teaching purposes when a course ends. Those date restrictions are applied in advance in Kaltura. Video analytics allow video publishers to know how many people are seeing their video. Simple video editing tools allow for screenshots or video captures (vidcaps) and movie clipping. Plugins exist for Drupal, Blackboard, WordPress, and other publishing platforms that Princeton already uses. Kaltura has mobile device specific delivery abilities (flavors, or transcoding types) that allow iPhones, which do not have Flash available, to see a video in alternate formats. Distribution and sharing tools allow viewers to share to Facebook, Twitter, Email, and many other destinations. If you need people to see the video for your event in real-time, live video streaming and broadcasting are possible.

Perhaps one of the most powerful features in Kaltura is its Application Programming Interface (API) set. Ben Johnston, Manager at the Humanities Resource Center (HRC) at Princeton, spoke about his use of Kaltura’s APIs to solve faculty teaching needs. In helping faculty to merge streaming video into their coursework, he works with thousands of files with his team at the HRC, and Kaltura makes it easy to manage and catalog those files. Johnston says that the API has lots of options, and that he tends to learn the functions he needs as projects call for them. Using commands that you send to Kaltura, you can build a web-based interface to load, play, stop rewind, mute, unmute, full-screen, get the timecode, trigger actions at specific times, skip to a specific time, and set a specific duration with all the audio and video that you have rights to in the system.

Recently, Johnston used Kaltura to create screenshots captured from videos. He built a web site that allows students to grab individual frames from specific movies to analyze a shot in that movie. He made a Kaltura player with a screenshot button for students to use to collect screenshots. Without Kaltura, he said, it would have still been possible, but far more difficult.

Systems at Princeton that connect to Kaltura include WordPress, Drupal, SharePoint, Blackboard, Roxen, and BuddyPress. Hopkins invited people to visit Princeton’s Mediaspace, http://bcmedia.princeton.edu/mediaspace, to see Kaltura-based Princeton content, and to consider what they might do with the system.

The screencast of Hopkins’ talk is below.